Friday night my friend Becca and I took the KTX train, Korea's high speed train, to Busan. It only took around 3 hours and was a really smooth ride. When we got into town we met Becca's boyfriend and his friends at a bar to celebrate his birthday. The bar was in a high rise building (on the 14th floor) overlooking the sea. We enjoyed drinks, beer pong, and flip cup. My other friends Sara and Jen joined us later that night and we went to another bar where they played our K-Pop requests and the bar tenders even made us balloon animals. Around 5A.M. everyone decided to call it a night.
at the KTX station
I stayed in my first ever 'love motel' this weekend. Actually, I stayed at two different love motels this weekend. This is quite an interesting concept in Korea. I will be frank about it in order to give you an idea of what they are and why they exist in this country. Most young Koreans (young meaning in their 20's) live with their parents until they get married, especially women. Most young Korean women even have a curfew set by their parents. They have nowhere to be alone with their boyfriends or significant others. There are love motels and DVD bangs that cater to these needs. Love motels are motels where couples can come for the night to 'be alone'. They are usually kind of seedy and filled with everything from mood lights, huge whirlpool tubs, body lotions and oils, condoms, and porn. People do not have to provide a credit card upon check-in and they are cheap, so often times tourists and other people besides couples use them. (i.e. poor English teachers like us) DVD bangs are private rooms you can rent out with couches and a large screen TV in order to watch DVD's. Again, couples use these places to 'be alone'. Although the love motels were quite funny and cheesy, they were clean and provided us with what we needed; a safe place to stay for the night. Not too bad in my opinion.
The next morning a couple other friends, Aly and Chris joined us. After lots of water and Tylenol, some burritos and morning cocktails, we made our way to the beach. Haeundae Beach is the most famous beach in Korea. It's well known for it's touristy area and the cliffs in the background almost remind you of the Mediterranean. Beautiful. Aly bought a kite and we all took turns flying it. The weather was perfect- not too cool or hot and the sun was shining. I got to stick my feet in the sand and I was more than happy to be near open water.
group shot on Haeundae Beach
the beautiful view
the sea
lovin it
After exploring the area around the beach we grabbed some drinks, claimed a plastic patio set outside on the sidewalk, and hung out for the better part of the afternoon. We had a great time just chatting and people watching. We joked that we should have put out a tip cup because nearly every Korean person that walked past us just stared and stared. After cleaning up a bit at our motel we ate some dinner and made our way to another bar to begin round 2. After a long game of Kings Cup and some expensive cocktails we hopped into some cabs and went to another area of Busan to check out the night life. We went to a bar called the Fuzzy Navel, where the bartenders were out of control. I have never seen bar tenders this crazy before. They were all jumping around, doing shots, dancing, singing, and they even did a fire show. The night ended earlier than Friday because we were all so tired.
fire show at Fuzzy Navel
the girls
After getting some much needed sleep, we woke up Sunday morning and packed our things and headed into the downtown area of Busan. We grabbed some lunch and then went to the famous Busan fish market, the Jagalchi Fish Market, to check out the strange sea foods and take some pictures. The streets leading up to the fish market were lined with little vendors selling all kinds of bizarre things. There were live fish, live sea creatures, dead fish, dead sea creatures, and all kinds of vegetables and seaweed too. Once we got inside the actual fish market building the stench of fish was overpowering. There were vendors lining the building with tanks and tanks of live creatures. The workers were dressed in long rubber aprons, rubber boots, and gloves. They were all calling out in Korean trying to sell their products. Some of the people were skinning dead things like eels. There were lots of fish guts too. I wasn't really grossed out, but the craziest thing I saw was this larger tank filled with decent sized octopus just gliding around in the water and sticking to the sides of the tank. Eek! The back exit doors led to a deck that overlooked the ship yard. There were tons of older people outside with blankets on the deck having little picnics with Korean treats and soju. We left the fish market after our noses couldn't take it anymore and enjoyed some afternoon shopping in one of the shopping districts.
fish market
inside the market
on the deck
just fishin'
fish heads, anyone?
outside the market
Check out some videos of the fish market here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100190385597599&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100190385597599&ref=mf
Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Busan and head to the train station to catch our train back to Seoul. After about 4 hours of travel I made it home safe and sound. I can't wait to venture to Busan again in the summer for the real beach season.
Namaste
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